WakeUpWalMart.com and Obama vs Wal Mart, Sam Walton, and me (and Hillary Clinton if I get around to explaining it)

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"Anyone entrusted with power will abuse it if not also animated with the love of truth and virtue, no matter whether he be a prince, or one of the people. -

Jean de la Fontaine

Jean de La Fontaine (July 8, 1621 – April 13, 1695) was the most famous French fabulist and one of the most widely read French poets of the 17th century.

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Found a lovely little site, www.WakeUpWalMart.com , that I'm gonna use to make some of my points. This is an anti-Walmart site, as you may have guessed. Don't get me wrong, I'm not 100% in support of Walmart, nor am I saying they do nothing wrong. I'm saying that comparatively, to other similar companies, they are among the least of all evils, they really do some good things, and most important to most people, they make living affordable for a majority of Americans. As in most cases, the good of the majority is the important thing, is it not?
You can find people against anything. You can even make them sound like they are 100% right if you only show one side of the story. I haven't been completely thru this site yet so I'm not saying they do so, but many people are believable because they shamelessly distort facts or even lie. So I'm gonna take a few of their points and try to see all sides, to find the truth. After that, you may or may not choose to look at that site and believe or not believe whatever they say. Up to you. But I know if they have their way, most Americans, poor and middle class, including Walmart employees, will not be able to make ends meet anymore, without living on beans bread and water (you know what I mean; not literally....well, it probably IS literal in some cases, actually).
The first thing I see is ridiculous. Wal Mart is responsible for Glenn Beck and thus Beck and Walmart are racist, because Beck called Obama a racist (I don't know if he is or not, but there are certainly legitimate evidences that he may be, and stronger ones that Michelle may be. I cannot see into his heart...well let me say it this way, addressing but one of the evidences: Oprah Winfrey realized not long after her show went national that it wouldn't be good publicity if the American people knew she attended Reverend Wright's church in Chicago, so she had the good sense to stop going there. Again, that's just one of the reasons people have thought the Obama's racist, tho it is the most damning one). To begin, Walmart is not the only one running ads on Beck's show. Two, Walmart runs ads on liberal programs and those that completely support Obama, too. Three, this is America and free speech is a basic right, and as long as this man is allowed a public show, its not up to advertisers to pre-approve what he says - its a commercial for God's sake, walmart isn't paying Beck's personal income and giving him bonuses for every racist remark he may or may not make, and I'm still not saying the man IS racist because I never have listened to him. But what the site says he said, that doesn't make him a racist. If everyone who accuses anyone of being racist is also a racist, then we all are. That's ridiculous. I don't need to hear about Beck, I don't care about him. This is about Walmart and this particular ridiculous accusation. The site says others are pulling their ads, and perhaps they are, but its still a ridiculous thing to accuse Walmart of, especially considering that Walmart has received awards from minority communities and organizations for their diversity and for helping the minority communities. But the site didn't include that particular info, did it? Wonder why? Because they care less about the truth than about proving their point, for whatever reasons they are doing it.

For their next point, I'm gonna just copy and paste what they say:

A Substantial Number of Wal-Mart Associates earn far below the poverty line

• In 2001, sales associates, the most common job in Wal-Mart, earned on average $8.23 an hour for annual wages of $13,861. The 2001 poverty line for a family of three was $14,630. ["Is Wal-Mart Too Powerful?", Business Week, 10/6/03, US Dept of Health and Human Services 2001 Poverty Guidelines, 2001]

• A 2003 wage analysis reported that cashiers, the second most common job, earn approximately $7.92 per hour and work 29 hours a week. This brings in annual wages of only $11,948. ["Statistical Analysis of Gender Patterns in Wal-Mart's Workforce", Dr. Richard Drogin 2003]

Wal-Mart Associates don't earn enough to support a family

The average two-person family (one parent and one child) needed $27,948 to meet basic needs in 2005, well above what Wal-Mart reports that its average full-time associate earns. Wal-Mart claimed that its average associate earned $9.68 an hour in 2005. That would make the average associate's annual wages $17,114.


Now, many of you don't need me to say one word. Mind you, this is before minimum wage increased. For those who don't know what I mean, I'm talking about everyone out there who makes this much money or less. I'm talking about those who work harder than Walmart employees, for less money, and fewer or zero benefits, who are thinking these employees are lucky and are pretty much despising them now as spoiled brats or the like, and wishing more than anything else at this moment that they could forcibly switch jobs with these people and let them see what hardship, as well as hard work for minimum wages, is really like.
My sisters each hired on their present jobs when each was 18. Now one is 36, the other 38. Stayed with the company all these years. They work in the deli/bakery of Food Giant, which bought out Big Star a few years ago (here in my town anyhow). The 38 yr old is manager of the deli/bakery, and the 36 yr old is head cook. Til she took over the manager's position, that sister make $1.05 over minimum wage, and the youngest sister made .95 over. After minimum wage rose lately, the youngest had to beg for a raise so she'd be making above minimum wage after over 18 yrs working here, and with the extra responsibilities she has, and they said no, and the local store manager had to beg. She got a 50 cent raise. My other sister has been doing her old job plus trying to do the hiring and firing and paperwork and other management jobs for another 50 cents, as they haven't evaluated her and given her the manager's pay even tho she's been doing the job for 5 months now. You think either of them would complain about Wal Mart pay? They have no benefits at all, not even health insurance, by the way. They don't even get the 10% employee discount like Wal Mart workers do.
Check out the blog entry before this one to learn about my son's job. My daughter is now working that same job, and she is 21, and 5'3" and about 92 pounds. Minimum wage, forced overtime for straight-time pay, no benefits - he isn't even holding out workman's comp, and this is a private business owned by the 3rd richest man in my county of about 30,000 people.
Shall we compare Walmart employees with those from Target, or Goodwill, or McDonalds, Wendys, Burger KIng, Taco Bell, Blockbuster Video, Sonic, etc? HOw about waitress jobs - did you know about the "tip" law? If your employee, such as a waiter or waitress, makes tips, they can be considered sort of self employed and you don't have to pay them minimum wages even? Did you know many waitresses, besides tips, make as little as $2 PER HOUR? NO benefits? By the way, how affordable do you think Obama's affordable insurance is gonna be to these people? Medicaid is in place making direct payments to doctors and hospitals etc already. Expand it. I live in Tennessee, where we have Tenncare, and the government Medicaid money is given to insurance companies instead of medical pros directly. We're dying. Tenncare won't pay for anything and is constantly turning down people who desperately need it. But that's not my point this blog.
YOu know what, nevermind. I could go on an on about this walmart thing, but I sicken of it all. You have the basics now and can figure the rest out for yourself. Don't forget to look up the Walmart scholarship program and other such charitable works if you wanna investigate it yourself further. The one most important point I have made already - we need Walmart's low prices for quality goods, or most of us will have our living conditions drop drastically in quality, if not find ourselves completely unable to buy even the basics, beyond bread and beans and one bar of soap a week. Why they pick on Walmart of all the worse companies and stores I don't know. But its bullshit.